Reverend William Ziebell | News, Sports, Jobs

LYND–The Reverend William Ziebell, age 85, of Lynd, Minnesota, passed away peacefully under hospice care on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in his home with family at his side. Sister congregations of Zion (Island Lake Township) and Christ Lutheran (Marshall) invite you to worship and give thanks at Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in Marshall at his funeral service. His celebration of life and service will be at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. Visitation will be from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Monday, July 22, 2024 at Hamilton Funeral Home in Marshall. The evening will conclude with a prayer service at 7:30 p.m. led by his dear friend, Pastor Dan Haag. Now that Pastor Ziebell has completed his work, his brother Michael will take him home to St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Slades Corners, Wisconsin, where a second funeral will take place. Services will be held there at 5:00 PM on Friday, July 26, 2024. Following worship at the church where he first heard the scriptures, Pastor Ziebell will be laid to rest in the church cemetery with his mother and father, awaiting the resurrection. His funeral will be held at 6:00 PM on Friday, followed by a reception at the church in Slades Corners, Wisconsin.

The family of Pastor Ziebell requests that memorials be made to the Glory of God and to the work of your home churches or, if you so desire, to his beloved Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Seminary in Mequon, Wisconsin. Thank you.

Pastor William “Invoice” Wayne Ziebell was born on January 31, 1939, in Burlington, Wisconsin. He was the second of three children (and the first son) born to William George Ziebell and Florence Beatrice (née Tonkyn) Ziebell. Bill grew up on the family’s small dairy farm, surrounded by a loving community that included the family of Henry and Marie Gehring. He was baptized and confirmed in the Christian faith at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Slades Corners (just south of Burlington), Wisconsin.

Bill attended Oakdale Elementary, a one-room schoolhouse in Wheatland Township, and graduated from Salem Central High School, Salem, Wisconsin. He then worked for two years in downtown Chicago as a shipping clerk to earn the money needed to attend college and pursue his one ambition: to become a minister. Bill enrolled at Concordia College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and then at Northwestern College in Watertown, Wisconsin, for his classical bachelor’s degree in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and German, which prepared him for Holy Ministry. He graduated second in his class and entered Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Seminary in Mequon, Wisconsin, to complete his pastoral studies. During his seminary years, he taught Latin and English at Martin Lutheran College in New Ulm, Minnesota, and served as pastor at Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wilmot, Wisconsin. During his time in the seminary, his father died and almost the entire professorial faculty of the seminary attended the funeral to comfort their grieving student, whom they loved.

After graduating from seminary, Pastor Ziebell was assigned to Trinity Lincoln Evangelical Lutheran Church in rural Lake City, Minnesota, where he was ordained into the Holy Ministry and installed as Pastor on July 16, 1967, beginning a ministry that lasted 57 years. During his time at Trinity Lincoln, he served as Chaplain at the nearby Mayo Clinic and as a Visiting Elder of the Red Wing Conference. Pastor Ziebell then accepted a call to Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in Marshall, Minnesota in 1972, where he would serve for over 25 years in two callings. During his tenure at Christ Lutheran, the congregation established the Samuel Lutheran Elementary School and he wrote a weekly column in the newspaper—a 300-word summary of the week’s scripture readings and his sermon called “Just a moment.” He continued this throughout the rest of his parish ministry, posting his last message on Facebook just this week.

In 1979, Pastor Ziebell accepted a call to Lakeside Lutheran High School in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, to teach the Scriptures to high school students. In 1982, he returned to parish ministry and accepted a call to serve the paired congregations of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Mazeppa, Minnesota, and St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bear Valley, Minnesota.

Unprecedentedly, in 1993 Pastor Ziebell accepted a call to return to Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in Marshall. He stepped down as Associate Pastor at Christ Lutheran in 2004 when he accepted a retirement call to serve Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Island Lake Township, rural Russell, Minnesota. He remained their Pastor, preaching his final sermon on July 7, 2024 – just 9 days shy of the 57th anniversary of his ordination.

In addition to his love of ministry and studying the Scriptures, Pastor Ziebell had passions for antiques, curiosities, traveling, building, farming, horses, art, cooking, listening to Bach, and a curious fondness for the British MG sports car. He took the title Pastor, or Shepard, literally, owning and caring for two flocks of sheep in his lifetime. Pastor Ziebell traveled throughout the Western world and even into the jungles of the Amazon with a missionary. He often took church groups and friends to the Rocky Mountains, Canada, the sights of the Eastern United States, the Holy Land, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Europe, the Ukraine, the homeland of Martin Luther, and many trips to his beloved England. Pastor Ziebell loved to build things; at his first church, Trinity Lincoln, he restored the steeple, including personally climbing the steeple to crown the cross. He restored several homes and cottages, built a real log cabin, and converted an abandoned dairy barn in rural Lynd into his home where he slept. He painted, carved, and made papier-mâché. Whether he was explaining scriptures or entertaining his friends, storytelling was an art form for Reverend Ziebell.

Pastor William Ziebell passed away on the evening of July 17, 2024, with his family by his side. He was 85 years, 5 months, and 17 days old. Blessed be his memory. Pastor Ziebell, Michael, and the family would like to express their deepest gratitude to Dr. Steven Meister and the staff at Avera Marshall and Dr. Marrisa Li and the staff at Mayo Clinic for their exceptional skills and profound care during his illness. The care provided by Melissa Maranell, the nurses and aides at Avera Hospice can only be described as humbling… thank you!

He is survived by his brother, Michael (LaVon) Ziebell of Spicer, Minnesota; beloved maternal aunt, Barbara Tonkyn of Lake Geneva, WI; dear brother-in-law, Raymond Meyers of Burlington, WI; nieces, Brenda (Ken) Fleischmann of Naperville, IL, Peggy (Chris) Weidert of Burlington, WI, Patti (Tim) Spiegelhoff of Burlington, WI, Kristen Johnson of Spicer; nephews, Thomas (Tammy) Meyers of Burlington, WI, Nathan (Michelle) Ziebell of Clear Lake, SD; 2 great-nieces; 4 great-nephews; 2 much loved friends/brothers in the ministry, the Reverend Professor (Ret.) David (Judy) Gosdeck of New Ulm and Pastor Daniel Haag of Lynd – with whom he enjoyed studying and debating the mysteries of Scripture.

He was preceded in death by his parents, grandparents, his dearly beloved sister Nancy Jean Meyers, and countless saints from the communities he loved and served.

²For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. ³And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4And my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not consist in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 2, verses 2-5 (KJV)

To God alone be the glory! Amen!

Arrangements by Hamilton Funeral Home in Marshall, Minnesota 507-532-2933. www.hamiltonfh.com